The Dream-Child's Progress and Other Essays by David Bentley Hart

Author:David Bentley Hart
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Angelico Press
Published: 2017-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

HERE IN OUR shady submontane seclusion, cool breezes constantly blow down from the peaks above and through the southern pass, even during the hottest months of summer. The soughing of the trees rises and falls as the gusts strengthen or weaken, but never wholly abates, and the sunlight—reaching us through the filtering leaves—incessantly flickers and undulates around our house. The birds are so numerous and various that their songs blend inextricably together, and only occasionally can one momentarily recognize a particular phrase—a goldfinch, say, or a cardinal—before it merges back into the larger polyphony. Then only the short, sharp staccato of the woodpeckers is immediately recognizable. Just now, however, the more dominant music here is the oddly sweet mixed chorus of the woodland frogs, especially at night, but throughout the day as well. The rain this spring, here as in much of the country, has been heavy and regular, and so the ditches are full to overflowing, and gleam like silver when viewed at an oblique slant. The smaller depressions at their edges, also full of water, catch the reflections of overhanging leaves, and the green mingles with the gray of their silt in such a way that they often look like pools of jade. When one comes nearer, however, all the standing water is quite clear and filled with small black tadpoles. Next year’s frog choruses will be louder.

Life abounds under the brow of the mountain. All the woodland creatures one would expect, great and small, are here—deer and black bears, glistening black snakes and tawny foxes, ruby-throated hummingbirds and owls and blue-tailed skinks, and so on. The butterflies at the moment are becoming quite plentiful; there are black swallowtails, zebra swallowtails, tiger swallowtails, but also red admirals, painted ladies, and a host of others. And azure and emerald and opalescent beetles and flies are now appearing as well.

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